Third Rome Resurgent

St. Paul of Tarsus may have earned martyrdom under the reign of Nero, but he also understood pagan Rome as the guarantor of order against evil and chaos within fallen creation[1]. Today’s enforcers of the End of History, however, wield their swords in vain. Modern empires are marked by self-assertion through fatuous intellectual constructs, mere excuses to satisfy certain passions. Authority no longer carries divine origin or grave responsibility, but derives solely from the manipulation of human mass and dead matter. A ruling class lacking any notion of service to a higher principle sends other people’s children to perish for freedom, equality and progress; immense profits are to be reaped provided the media sets the appropriate narrative.

Half a century ago, American officialdom justified the Vietnam War with the Domino Theory, claiming that Communist power would soon reach from the Mekong River to a stranglehold over the Strait of Malacca. All theorizing aside, US action in Southeast Asia at the time related much more to the expansion of the military-industrial complex and narcotics trade than “credibility” and containment. But for the past decade, Washington has assiduously applied the Domino Theory to the Middle East. With the September 11th attacks as an alibi for limitless intervention into the Islamic world, the US has invaded, occupied, pressured or subverted any country therein refusing to toe its agenda.

A glance at a map will suffice to convey the breadth of US penetration into Dar al-Islam. Here’s a quick sampling: outright large-scale war on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya; counterinsurgency strikes in Yemen, Somalia, and on Pakistan’s northwest frontier; sanctions and saber-rattling against Iran; and CIA-engineered color revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, Tunisia and Egypt. The 24-hour news cycle cannot capture the Novus Ordo Seclorum’s inexorable attack on sovereignty, nor is it meant to. While the thin layer of our public that pays any attention to transpiring events is fed “human rights” jingoism, Western banksters and the Salafist emirs of Arabia are moving in concert to seize control of a vast swathe of the earth’s energy resources.

With Libyan ruler Mohammar Gaddafi overthrown and murdered in 2011, Langley’s operations wizards were already exploiting Syria’s internal fissures to bring down President Bashar al-Assad, son of the late Hafez al-Assad, and his Alawite government. When US attempts to rope Damascus into an anti-Iranian coalition were declined, Syria was targeted for destruction. Yet against all odds, Assad has proven himself a fighter worthy of his ruthless father’s name, withstanding two years of US-backed insurrection in what has been a clear attempt to eliminate Syrian sovereignty. It’s not just the White House that wants him dead, either- Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been especially enthusiastic in financing and arming Sunni rebels, the core of whom are foreign mercenaries linked to none other than Al Qaeda.

Through NATO and in alliance with Gulf potentates, the United States has raised an army of jihadists, “freedom fighters” in our press parlance, against the regime in Damascus. The Free Syrian Army, Jahbat al-Nusra and other formations are already notorious for their massacres of Christians and at least one recorded episode of cannibalism. US policymakers would doubtless revel in the young Assad’s suffering the same gruesome fate they arranged for Gaddafi, but matters aren’t going as smoothly as planned. With help from Iranian advisors and Hezbollah light infantry, Assad has buffeted the assault and made some impressive gains, having recently retaken the key town of Qusair near the Lebanese border before proceeding to rebel-held Aleppo in the north.

By now the Obama Administration has officially abandoned any pretenses to plausible deniability. The United States, a presidential national security aide announced, will directly and openly supply weaponry to rebel factions in Syria – under the highly specious pretext of alleged chemical weapons use by government forces. The semi-secret war on Damascus has been directed by the CIA, with Langley facilitating arms shipments from places like Croatia and newly-“liberated” Libya, delivery of which is handled by the Turks. While the administration’s step is mostly a public declaration of US policy intentions, it nonetheless builds momentum toward a no-fly-zone over the country, i.e. the inauguration of aerial bombardment as previously demonstrated over places like Belgrade, Baghdad and Tripoli.

Assad is a hard man in an unforgiving neighborhood, but he will need a good deal more than the patronage of Tehran’s ayatollahs to survive the sustained onslaught of the Pax Americana. Enter Russian President Vladimir Putin, the only leader with the means and the will to prevent further aggression against Syria. Putin has spent 13 years charting Russia’s path of resurgence, and he is acutely aware of US destabilization programs for the Middle East and beyond. The cold-eyed intelligence officer-turned-Gosudar is drawing a line in the sands of Syria, whose civil war has become an international proxy conflict. He knows quite well the fall of Damascus will serve only as a prelude to a US-Israeli campaign against Iran, a nation holding the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves[2]. Such an endeavor would expose Russia’s entire southern flank to increased migrant flows and crime, a new wave of mujahedin terrorists, and not far behind them, American power projection.

The long-term objective of US strategic planners is no less than the capture of Eurasia and Russia’s dismemberment; Putin is therefore mounting a geopolitical counteroffensive to halt Washington’s game of dominoes before it goes too far. Of late Moscow has engaged in active diplomacy while maneuvering significant military assets to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant. Thus, as the Kremlin continues to push for another round of Syria negotiations in Geneva and obstructs Western intervention at the level of the UN Security Council, it has deployed its own hard power to the region.

Russia’s general staff has set about implementing leadership directives to strengthen the country’s position in the Middle East, giving Washington and Tel Aviv a well-founded reason to think twice before embarking upon yet another reckless venture[3]. The upgrading Russian Navy just recently formed a permanent Mediterranean Flotilla of 16 combat-ready ships currently stationed off the coast of Syria, and negotiations with Cyprus to host basing facilities for both air and sea forces are reported to be in progress. In another bold move, Putin even proposed that Russian paratroopers stand post on the Golan Heights, where Austrian and Croat peacekeepers have withdrawn and only a Fijian-Filipino contingent under Indian command remains[4].

Putin is skillfully making use of other policy instruments to change the Western calculus on Syria. Russian arms transfers to Damascus have garnered headlines due to the scheduled delivery of formidable S-300 SAM complexes sometime within the year as well as advanced MiG interceptors. Avoiding any hasty gestures, the Kremlin has insisted upon the full legality of these defensive weapons sales (in contrast to US and allied arming of jihadists), thereby demonstrating its commitment to Syrian sovereignty. It is also likely that Russian intelligence services have assisted in targeting the rebel command structure; though Moscow’s foreign ministry has announced that all government personnel have been evacuated from war-scarred Syria, the “advisory” work of spetsnaz units in these operations is probable.

As many American Evangelicals incessantly drum up billions for the IDF at the behest of an Israel lobby that holds them in undisguised contempt, Russia is increasingly returning to its ancient duty of defending the inheritance of Byzantium, the Second Rome. Putin can hardly be accused of sentimentality; traditional Russian statecraft has maintained centuries of intense focus on controlling the Black Sea Basin and its approaches. Yet geopolitics is not conducted in a rationalized vacuum, either- the entirety of cultural, historical and religious context will inevitably inform policy and conceptions of interest. And so we observe the Kremlin making fraternal Serbia a key transit point in its planned South Stream gas pipeline, potentially expanding military ties with Orthodox Cyprus and shielding the Syrian Baathist state (and the Christian communities under its protection) from certain annihilation[5].

America, meanwhile, advances liberal imperialism through its favored cutouts- from transnational Muslim militant groups to Open Society NGOs imposing democracy, multiculturalism, feminism and sexual perversion. In Russia’s case, we see evidence for both types of sabotage in Western elites’ advocacy for the depraved and blasphemous exhibitionists of Pussy Riot and the jihad in the North Caucasus. Tried and tested across Eurasia, this dual-track approach forms a dialectic of subversion aimed at destroying national cultures and state sovereignty. What Putin faces is the same Revolution that nearly killed Russia in the last century, the same regicide apostates who have driven over generations to build a counterfeit paradise on earth according to malevolently inspired abstractions of liberty and equality. In the fateful year of 1848, the poet Fedor Tyutchev would write of a coming war, one as much spiritual as physical:

Long now in Europe there have existed only two actual forces- the Revolution and Russia. These two powers are now set against each other, and perhaps tomorrow they will enter into combat. Between them there are no negotiations, and all treaties are impossible; the existence of one is tantamount to the death of the other! Upon the outcome of the struggle that has arisen between them, the greatest struggle to which the world has been witness, depends the political and religious future of humanity for centuries.

That war is not over[6]. The West tramples its patrimony, fashioning sacraments out of abominations, and demands that all humanity follow suit. Whatever its own tragic shortcomings, Russia is increasingly rejecting the latest iterations of “progress” on offer and now prepares its lines of defense beginning with Syria, among the first lands to receive Our Lord’s Gospel[7]. Vladimir Putin is far from a perfect counterrevolutionary, but he leads the last great people to oppose an incipient, inhuman world tyranny. His place in history’s saga depends on an ideal reborn- not bourgeois, technocratic Russia Inc., but a Third Rome, calling the nations to repentance and giving the enemies of God good cause to shudder.

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[1]“…for the authority (civil) does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:4)

[3] The IDF has carried out at least four raids against Syrian territory this year, the latest a submarine-launched cruise missile strike against a storage facility holding Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles. Should Moscow follow through on its deliveries, Tel Aviv might soon learn it can no longer attack Syria’s armed forces with impunity.

[4] Because of its UN Security Council permanent membership and Israeli objections, Russia’s initiative was blocked. 340 Filipinos will likely withdraw in August, and 150 Irish and 50 Nepalese soldiers will now be sent to reinforce some 500 Fijians.

[5] As 2013 is the 1,025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’, Putin is also hosting the patriarchs and senior clergy of the 15 Orthodox Churches to “discuss interfaith matters as well as current international events of interest to Orthodox communities in various parts of the world.”

Russia is first and foremost a Christian empire; the Russian people are Christian not only by the Orthodoxy of their belief, but in even greater measure due to something more intimate than beliefs…The Revolution is first and foremost the enemy of Christianity!…Those transformations to which it has consecutively been subjected, those slogans it without fail adopts, even its violence and crimes were of secondary nature and incidental; yet the one thing in it not of this order is the anti-Christian intent that inspires it, and it is this which has granted it dread mastery over the universe…He who cannot understand this is no more than a blind man present at a spectacle delivered to him by the world.